1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method in which a portable terminal establishes a connection for communication with a counterpart portable device. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling Transmit (Tx) power when a portable terminal establishes a connection for communication with a counterpart portable device for human body communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently, information can be exchanged anytime nearly anywhere, and thus there is a growing interest in a Personal Area Network (PAN) through which an individual user can collect and process a variety of data from portable terminals within the user's vicinity. To satisfy this interest, the number of personal area terminals (i.e., portable terminals) carried by the individual user or encountered within a given vicinity is increasing. Accordingly, information exchange is more frequently being carried out between the portable terminals.
To exchange data between the portable terminals, the portable terminals are conventionally connected in a wired fashion. The conventional communication method has a disadvantage in that not only may the cables be entangled, but also users have to inconveniently carry the cables. Accordingly, various wireless communication methods (i.e., Bluetooth, IrDA, ZigBee, UWB, etc.) have already been commercialized or are currently being developed for connections between personal region devices, i.e., portable terminals.
For example, in a Bluetooth communication connection process of the portable terminal, the portable terminal equipped with a Bluetooth module searches for connectable Bluetooth devices located near the portable terminal to use the Bluetooth devices for respective services. After searching for the connectable Bluetooth devices, the portable terminal generates a list of the Bluetooth devices that are found in the search. A user of the portable terminal selects a Bluetooth device to be connected from the generated list of the Bluetooth devices, and thereafter performs a communication connection with the Bluetooth device.
Since the portable terminal is connected to various counterpart portable devices by using multiple connections, a large number of connections are supported. As a result, a problem arises in that a process of connecting the portable terminal and the counterpart portable device is becoming more complicated.
When the portable terminal performs a communication connection with the portable device, a communication method for connecting the portable terminal and the counterpart portable device has to be selected, and a portable device supporting the selected communication method has to be searched for. A counterpart portable device in a receiving side can also perform a communication connection by performing the same process used in the portable terminal.
When a user intends to connect the portable terminal and the counterpart portable device, the user has to perform several operations, which leads to user inconvenience. To address this problem, there is ongoing research on human body communication in which information can be exchanged by using a human body as a medium according to a dielectric property of the human body rather than using wired or wireless communications.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a process of performing a communication connection by using human body communication in a conventional mobile communication system.
The human body communication is a technique for implementing data communication by using a human body 100 rather than cables. The technique includes a method of connecting a transmitting apparatus 110 and a receiving apparatus 120 by using changes in current flowing within a human body or by using changes in a surface electric field.
The human body communication has a problem in that a Transmit (Tx)/Receive (Rx) sensitivity significantly differs according to an electrode distance. Herein, the electrode distance may be a distance to a body part on which human body communication is performed or a distance between electrodes based on the number of persons performing human body communication.
The human body communication has a problem in that Tx/Rx quality may vary according to a distance between a portable terminal and a counterpart portable device, which intend to establish a connection for communication via the human body, for example, a distance between the transmitting apparatus 110 and the receiving apparatus 120.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for controlling power to improve communication quality when the aforementioned human body communication is performed.